Ukraine Showcases a Fleet of Leopard Tanks in Rebuke to Russia
KYIV -The war in Ukraine started by Russia unprovoked has turned out to be more complex for the Russians with what was supposed to be a 72 hours special operation spilling in almont a second year.
Ukraine has rejected Russian claims about its military losses as it showcased what appears to be a fleet of battle-ready, German-made Leopard tanks as Kyiv’s grinding counteroffensive approaches its fourth month.
“The number of destroyed Leopards in the Russian Ministry of Defense’s daily reports[…]is not correlated in any way to the number of Leopard 2A4 tanks in the Ukrainian Armed Forces,” Kyiv’s Defense Ministry wrote in a post to X, on Saturday.
The Ukrainian government also shared a video showing lines of Leopard tanks, many sporting the national flag, that it said were part of Ukraine’s 33rd Mechanized Brigade.
In January, Kyiv’s allies pledged the Western-made hardware that experts said was best suited to Ukraine’s needs given the entrenched Russian defenses that have so far caused its counteroffensive to stutter. Germany’s Defense Ministry announced in late March that the first of the Leopard 2 tanks had arrived in Ukraine.
But analysts have suggested that throughout Ukraine’s counteroffensive, which has attracted some criticism for the slow pace of progress against dug-in Russian forces, Kyiv’s military has largely held back its newly received Leopard 2 tanks after the first days of the push.
